Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum: Build Your Own Year
A kindergarten homeschool curriculum needs four things: a systematic phonics resource, hands-on math you mostly play, a few minutes of handwriting, and a tall stack of library read-alouds. That’s the entire academic core for a five-year-old: twenty to forty-five minutes a day of formal work, with everything else learned through play, errands and being read to. You can build it yourself for the price of two or three books. A boxed all-in-one kindergarten program is a convenience, not a requirement, and this is the one grade where skipping it costs you nothing but the shelf space.
“Create your own kindergarten curriculum” was one of the founding ideas of this site’s 2011-era archive, and it has aged better than almost anything else from that decade, because kindergarten is still the grade publishers overcomplicate most and parents can cover best. I’ve now seen kindergarten from both chairs: I was the kindergartner working ahead at the kitchen table, and I’ve taught it twice, with my third coming up. Below is the honest build, the named picks we chose or seriously considered for each subject, and what each part costs.
How to homeschool kindergarten, start to finish
If you’re asking how to homeschool kindergarten at all, rather than which book to buy, the whole job fits on an index card:
- Check your state’s rules first. Whether kindergarten is compulsory, and at what age, varies by state, and so does what you have to file. Look up your own state’s current requirements before you buy anything.
- Choose one phonics spine. One. Not three in rotation.
- Choose a math approach: a short program with a script, or games plus a workbook you supervise.
- Add five to ten minutes of handwriting once the child can hold a crayon comfortably.
- Get a library card and make a weekly library run part of the week. Read-alouds carry science, history, geography and art at this age.
- Set a short daily rhythm of two or three lessons, each ten to fifteen minutes, done in the morning while the child is fresh.
- Stop when it stops being fun, and pick it up tomorrow.
That’s it. If your child is three or four and you’re wondering whether any of this applies yet, the earlier-years question is covered in do you need a preschool curriculum. The short answer there is mostly no.
Reading: one phonics spine, kept short
Pick one systematic phonics resource and do a short lesson most days: five to fifteen minutes, ending before anyone cries. Whatever spine you choose, the sequence matters more than the brand. I’ve written the full method, including what to do when a child stalls (spoiler: wait), in teaching your child to read at home.
The three spines we compared, from cheapest to most thorough:
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. One book that walks parent and child through the whole early-reading sequence, lesson by lesson. It is the least glamorous option and the cheapest, and it’s the one I’d hand a parent who wants to start on Monday. We used it as a spine and skipped ahead whenever a lesson was already easy, which works fine.
- All About Reading Pre-reading. This is the gentle on-ramp for a child who doesn’t yet know letter sounds. All About Learning Press says it is “designed for preschoolers and kindergarteners” and teaches five pre-reading skills: print awareness, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, listening comprehension and motivation to read. It has 78 lessons, and the publisher is clear that they aren’t meant to be done one a day: “some lessons may take a week or more to finish.” It’s the scripted, box-of-cards, more expensive end of the market, with numbered reading levels that follow it.
- A letter-sound sequence you run yourself. If your child is still learning which sound each letter makes, the DIY version is a sound-first order, a few letters a week, with review weeks built in. We laid that out week by week in letter of the week, and it slots straight in front of either book above.
Once blending starts, pair the lessons with genuinely decodable early readers. The canonical example is the Bob Books Set 1 box, whose first book uses so few letters it feels like a magic trick when a five-year-old reads the whole thing alone.
Math: manipulatives first, workbook second
Kindergarten math is counting, comparing, patterns, shapes and beginning addition, and all of it lives happily in objects before it lives on paper. A basic set of snap-together counting cubes, like MathLink Cubes in the 100-count set, covers months of this: build towers of ten, compare “trains,” split seven cubes between two hands.
If you’d rather have a published program from day one, the one we chose was Kindergarten Math with Confidence by Kate Snow, and the reasons were all on the author’s own description of it:
- Two books. It has an instructor’s guide, which is the core, and a student workbook.
- Short lessons. Snow says they “take about 15 minutes from start to finish,” in three parts: a short review, a hands-on teaching activity, and one workbook page.
- Broad coverage. It covers writing numbers, counting to 100, beginning addition and subtraction, shapes, measurement, time and money.
- Household manipulatives. It uses counters, coins and a clock, and Snow names only one specialized material, a set of pattern blocks. A Learning Resources pattern block set is the usual one.
Snow writes that most children are ready for it at 5 or 6, and that it helps if a child can already count to 10 and hold a pencil. Note the honest trade-off: it is scripted, which some parents find a relief and others find suffocating. Choose for the adult who’ll teach it.
The no-program alternative is equally respectable: games with the cubes, a deck of cards, a ruler and a kitchen scale, plus a simple workbook added when your child starts liking the ceremony of writing answers, not before. The bigger math-program decision comes in first grade, when programs start to differ in ways that matter.
Handwriting: five to ten minutes, no more
Kindergarten handwriting is short, daily and over before the hand tires. Big movements come first: chalk on the driveway, a finger in a tray of salt, play dough rolled into letter shapes. A workbook can follow. We used the Letters & Numbers for Me kindergarten workbook, the kindergarten book in the same Learning Without Tears sequence whose first-grade book is My Printing Book. Use one page a day at most, and stop at the first sign of a death grip.
Spelling and formal composition wait. At five, “writing” mostly means the child telling you a sentence and watching you write it down.
Everything else is a read-aloud
Science, history, geography and art appreciation are all the same subject at five, and it’s called the library. A weekly stack of picture books about volcanoes, knights, whales and Van Gogh delivers more retained kindergarten “content” than any curriculum I’ve compared, at a cost of zero dollars. Add a nature walk with a magnifying glass, crayons on the table, and a child “helping” measure flour, and you have covered what boxed kindergarten programs sell as five separate line items.
The one discipline worth adding is a rough rotation, so the stack doesn’t become thirty books about dinosaurs. One week animals, one week a place on the globe, one week a season or the weather, one week an artist or a piece of music. A children’s librarian will happily pull a stack for any of those if you ask.
Second-generation aside: my mother’s version of this in the ’90s was A Beka phonics plus the bookmobile, because that’s what existed. Families choose differently, from full boxed programs, secular or faith-based, to pure DIY like this build, and all of those are tools that work in different houses. What hasn’t changed in thirty years is the ratio: the library did most of the work then, and it does most of the work now.
The stack, subject by subject, and what each part costs
| Subject | Our pick | Daily time | What it costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Letter sounds | Letter of the week, sound-first order | 5–10 min | Free |
| Phonics spine | 100 Easy Lessons (or AAR Pre-reading, then Level 1) | 10–15 min | One reusable book, or a boxed program at the pricier end |
| Early readers | Bob Books Set 1, then the library’s decodables | 5 min | One small box set, reusable across children |
| Math | Kindergarten Math with Confidence, or cube games | 10–15 min | One reusable guide plus one consumable workbook per child |
| Manipulatives | Counting cubes, pattern blocks, household coins | As needed | One-off; survives every sibling |
| Handwriting | Letters & Numbers for Me, after big-movement practice | 5–10 min | One consumable workbook per child |
| Read-alouds | Library stack on a rough rotation | 20–30 min | A library card |
| Science, history, art | Library books, a magnifier, real paint | Weekly | Supplies only |
I’m not going to quote prices, because publishers reprice and a number written in October is wrong by spring. Every publisher above posts current pricing and free samples on its own site. The shape of the cost is the useful part. The only unavoidable annual, per-child spending in a DIY kindergarten is consumables: one math workbook and one handwriting book. Everything else is either a one-off that outlives the child who used it first, or free.
If you’d rather buy a boxed kindergarten
Some families want the whole year in one box, with a daily schedule printed for them, and that’s a reasonable thing to pay for. It’s most worth it if you’re new and anxious, or juggling a baby, or simply know you’ll do better following a list than building one. The trade-off is that you’ll pay for subjects the library would have covered free, and a boxed kindergarten tends to be more paper-heavy than a five-year-old needs.
The formats differ more than the brand names suggest: literature-based boxes, hands-on kits, classical packages, online subscriptions, and at least one complete free option. We compared them side by side in all-in-one homeschool programs. If you buy one, the advice is the same as for DIY: use the phonics and math daily, and treat everything else in the box as optional.
A sample kindergarten day (ours, roughly)
Morning, after breakfast: phonics lesson (ten minutes), math game or lesson (fifteen minutes), handwriting (five minutes, sometimes chalk on the driveway). One read-aloud block before lunch and one before quiet hour. Done. The formal total is under forty-five minutes, and on a chaotic day the read-aloud alone still counts as school. A five-year-old’s real curriculum is the household running around them.
When you sketch the whole year, one planning afternoon is honestly enough for kindergarten: pick the phonics spine, pick the math approach, and renew the library card.
What to skip (with a clear conscience)
Skip the kindergarten boxed sets with seven teacher’s manuals; skip formal spelling, formal grammar and anything with a test; skip the printable-pack treadmill. None of it makes a stronger reader at eight. I say that as someone who did worksheet-heavy kindergarten herself and mostly remembers the workbook smell. Save the money and the goodwill for first grade, when a real curriculum decision actually arrives.
FAQ: kindergarten homeschool curriculum
Do you need a curriculum for kindergarten homeschool?
Not a boxed one. A systematic phonics resource, hands-on math, a little handwriting and daily read-alouds cover the academic core. Where kindergarten is compulsory at all, the rules vary by state and usually concern process rather than particular published programs, so verify yours. No five-year-old needs seven subjects.
What is the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum?
The best one is a phonics spine and a math approach you’ll actually use every day. For phonics, that might be 100 Easy Lessons for a parent who wants to start tomorrow, or All About Reading for one who wants a fuller scripted program. For math, Kindergarten Math with Confidence suits a parent who wants a script, and cube games plus a workbook suit one who doesn’t. Consistency matters more than which one you pick.
How long should homeschool kindergarten take each day?
Commonly twenty to forty-five minutes of formal work, split into short lessons, plus read-alouds and play. If your formal block regularly runs past an hour, the material or the schedule is fighting the child, and the child is right.
What subjects should a kindergarten homeschool cover?
Reading (phonics plus read-alouds), beginning math, and handwriting in small doses. Then science, history and art delivered through library books and real life. Check your state’s current subject requirements; the short list above meets the spirit of nearly all of them at this age.
Is it OK to start kindergarten with a 4-year-old?
If the child is asking, yes. Keep it brief and stop while it’s fun. If they’re not asking, wait without guilt. The original 2011 post behind this one described a just-turned-four-year-old doing kindergarten work by choice. Readiness, not the birthday, is the signal.
